Everyone should consider health insurance as a necessity. Due to the increasing importance of medical insurance there are various medical insurance plans available to choose from. Health insurance plans, are mainly divided into two categories, namely managed care plans, and free for service medical plans. Managed care plans are offered by Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) and Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) and thus are also known as HMO and PPO plans.
These plans allow the insurers to choose a doctor, from an extensive list of doctors, included in the network of the above organizations. But in case of visiting a specialist, insurers would need to take the approval of their respective, selected doctors. Managed care plans, cover most of the expenses, of check-ups, and doctor's visiting charges. These plans offer very low prices and provide moderate coverage. The second category includes free for service plans, more popularly known as, indemnity plans. These plans are termed as traditional medical insurance plans. In this type of medical insurance plan, insurers can choose any doctor or hospital, according to their requirement of medical services. These plans do not involve any monthly premiums, as they allow insurers to make payments, to the doctors or hospitals, at the time of the provided service.
There are certain essential factors that need to be taken into consideration, while selecting medical insurance plans. These factors include, the diseases covered by the plans, the benefits accumulating from the plans, and the deductibles, that the insurers would have to pay. Hence, it is most important to study and compare all the plans properly and choose, according to one's convenience.
Medical insurance has become a necessity, and also a controversial topic, due to the dramatic rise in its costs. Over 44 million Americans do not have a health insurance, which is considered as a necessity in the U.S. The tremendous increase, in the cost of medical insurance, has become a key subject, for political and economic debates. There have been remarkable fluctuations, in the cost of medical insurance, and hence insurers have to pay most of their medical expenses, as they do not get enough help, from the medical insurance plans.
The cost of health insurance that comes under out-of-pocket, insurance plan can go up to $12,000 per year. Thus, the high costs of medical insurance have caused a lot of political tension in many states. A major part of the population in America doesn't have health insurance, as they can't afford, such expensive insurance premiums. Due to these cost tensions, a number of proposals are taken out in order to offer various discounts, on the cost of medical insurance.
Certain proposals provide enormous discounts to people whose annual family income is less than $77,000 or whose medical expenses, are more than 5% of their total income. There are also certain proposals to provide discounts, on the medical prescriptions of families earning under $58,000. There are a lot of things that affect the cost of medical insurance, so, read well when skimming through various offers.